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Designer of Fossil Watches Turns His Eye to Reinventing the Mouse

Review: Teaming up with world-class craftsman Philippe Starck, Microsoft gives us the designer eye for the geeky guy. (ExtremeTech)

In the world of PCs, its so often function that soundly trounces form. As power users, were consumed with efficient algorithms, tight clock cycles, gobs of meaty storage, and various other technical bells and whistles that float our geeky boats. But what about aesthetics? Is there a place for cutting-edge artistic design in the midst of all that silicon and wires? Microsoft thinks so.

Enter Philippe Starck, a famous architect and industrial designer with a keen eye for reinventing everyday objects. From Fossil watches to Puma sneakers, hes remade countless common items. Now hes remade the mouse.

The chassis of the input device, officially known as the Optical Mouse by Starck, mimics the shape of the human brains left and right hemisphere, with the added touch of an illuminating strip down the center. According to the designer, this strip signifies life, flowing down the center of the object and perhaps —this is our conjecture —symbolizing the conjoining of human and mechanical. This level of artistic expression is rarely, if ever, seen in PC design—let alone in a mere peripheral component.

However, the lighted strip exemplifies the mouses "form over function" design. The sheer amount of power needed to keep it lit requires the unit to be connected via USB to suck up enough power from the PC.